August 09, 2011

i ❤ friendship bracelets

Last week I showed you a sneak peak of the friendship bracelets I sent off for the swap.

Today I have a tutorial for one of the bracelets.

Supplies:

Embroidery floss in several coordinating colors

Clear nail polish

1 head pin

1 large lobster claw and matching do-dad to attach the claw to

Scissors

Pliers

I found my heart at Joann's a while back. Anything with a spot to connect the floss, and clasp to, will work. This is a great place to be creative.

1. Cut your floss. I used 16 strands total that were about 18 inches long. I wanted my green to just be a little accent, so I used fewer green strands. Play with you colors to decided what you want to stand out.

2. Run your floss through your do-dad (my official term for the heart finding). Line up the ends of you floss so the do-dad is in the middle of the loop.

3. Take one of your floss strands and wrap it several times around the top of the big group. Grab another strand of floss and tie a square knot. Get that knot flush to the do-dad. ;)

4. This is another spot you can use your creativity. I chose to use a simple braid. If you are ambitious, you could come up with all sorts of knots and braids to create the main bracelet.

If you choose to do a knotted bracelet, you will most likely need longer floss to begin with. Don't forget to factor that in.

5. When you have braided the desired length of your bracelet, it is time to add your lobster claw. I created a horse shoe with my headpin and dropped the claw to the bottom.

Wrap the head pin around the end of your braid. I like to hook it, and twist back around.

6. Just like we did in the very beginning, we are going to wrap some floss around the head pin.

Grab another strand of floss and tie them in a square knot.

7. Trim off your excess strings. Dab a little clear nail polish on you knot to seal it off.